Leadership Development

• To develop holistically trained, God-centered, Holy Spirit-filled leaders, the North Central District partners with licensed counselors and coaches to guide our development process. Each member of our team has different goals to assist each developing leader discover how he or she can use his or her gifts and talents to continue to expand the Kingdom.

• There is a cost associated with these partnerships. The North Central District is able to partner with local churches and ministries to assist in offsetting these costs where needed. Please email us for scholarship information.

Dr. Pang Foua Yang Rhodes, PhD, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has provided couples, family, and individual therapy for over 20 years. She integrates theology and psychology to address the spiritual, emotional, cognitive, and relational challenges that individuals and families face. She helps clients to understand current struggles through the lens of personal and family development to disrupt unproductive patterns of thinking and behavior. Compassion, insight, and practical skills are hallmarks of her approach. Pang Foua specializes in couples therapy, helping partners to see how they each contribute to the health of the relationship. One of her greatest joys is walking with people on the path of healing so they can more fully love God and others.

Pang Foua and her husband, Reverend Greg Rhodes, met in college and have been married 30 years. Together they started RiverLife Church (of the North Central District) in 2014, with a focus on ministering to next generation Hmong and beyond. She is the Spiritual Growth Director, overseeing life groups, prayer, healing, and deliverance ministries. Pang Foua currently serves on the District Executive Committee for the North Central District and on the board of directors for the C&MA in the US.

Pang Foua received a PhD in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota, a M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA), and a B.S. in Psychology from Brown University (Providence, RI). From 2009 – 2019 she was an assistant professor at Argosy University—Twin Cities, where she taught in the Doctorate and Master of Arts programs in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Rev. Steve Chamberlain is a Ministry Leadership Coach who helps pastors and ministry leaders strengthen their leadership, build effective teams, and lead with greater intentionality. A retired pastor with decades of ministry and leadership experience, Steve currently coaches pastors across a seven-state region, working with leaders from Alliance, Baptist, Evangelical Free, and non-denominational churches.

Drawing from his pastoral experience and coaching work, Steve provides an experienced outside perspective to help leaders think strategically, understand their teams, and navigate the challenges of ministry leadership. His coaching focuses on three key areas:

• Leadership Strategy & Design - Clarifying vision, priorities, leadership approaches, and organizational alignment.

• Biblical Team Architecture - Building healthy, effective staff and lay teams around biblical principles, individual strengths, and clear roles.

• Staff Effectiveness & Alignment - Identifying barriers to effectiveness and developing greater clarity, communication, accountability, and teamwork.

Steve combines practical leadership experience with a biblical perspective and a strong interest in understanding how people, teams, and organizations function. He uses tools such as leadership-style assessments and spiritual-gifts resources to help leaders better understand themselves and those they lead. His approach is conversational, strategic, and intentionally practical. Rather than simply offering another list of leadership principles, Steve works alongside leaders to think more clearly, recognize what they may be missing, ask the right questions, and develop better ways to lead.

His goal is simple: to help good pastors become better leaders and healthy churches become more effective in fulfilling their mission.

Rev. Mike Sohm and his wife Nancy have served with the Alliance in different roles beginning in Burnaby, BC. Mike came to Christ through the Navigator student ministry at Minnesota State University, Mankato and was active in the student ministry for four years. He met Nancy at MSU through the Navigators. After completing his M.Div at Canadian Theological Seminary, he and Nancy served at Brentwood Park Alliance Church for their ALME. Mike and Nancy were appointed to Thailand where they worked for only 1 ½ terms in Thailand. Mike transitioned to the role of Regional Director (RD) for the Asia Pacific Region for 11 years and then was an Assistant Vice President in AM for the next four years. While serving as an RD, Mike was able to go through the Arrow Leadership Program which God used to do a deeper work in him and shift his leadership style to be a coaching leader. He applied this approach with field leaders in Asia and with other IWs. In 2006, the Lord then led them back to Minnesota where Mike served as the EVP at Crown College and later the VP for Student Development. During this time, Mike received coaching through Building Champions and trained as a Life Coach through Ministry International, applying this training to coaching students, staff, and faculty members. In 2013 Mike transitioned to leading CAMA Services and retired mid-2022 from that role. He continued coaching staff and took further training through Creative Results Management, the organization led by Keith Webb. Since retiring from the Alliance, Mike has continued to coach others in ministry, volunteer at his local church, and recently joined the staff of the Alliance World Fellowship as a senior advisor to the president.

Mike and Nancy will be married 45 years in the summer of 2024. They reside in Waconia, MN, have three adult sons and three grandchildren. He invests a lot of his time into his grandchildren and enjoys CrossFit both as a way to stay fit and as a hobby.